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Monday, August 11, 2008

Growing Up

Are you on MySpace? Or Facebook? Despite their reputations for being teenybopper meat markets, they have served me well in recent times. I've been able to reconnect with people I haven't seen in ages.

It's amazing how time flies. It's amazing how people change.

Law school and college classmates are no big deal. I graduated from law school in 2001. I graduated from college in 1998. It hasn't been that long. I knew these people in their young adulthood, when basic personalities had already long been formed.

But high school is different. Elementary school, too. Yes, elementary school! So very different. Reading the profiles of various faces from my past is incredibly interesting.

I didn't keep in touch with anyone from high school. I don't really have a good explanation why. I suppose I could chalk it up to moving across the country. After all, in the mid-'90s, the Internet wasn't anything like what it is now. Even cell phones were somewhat of a rarity.

However, I don't even think these are the reasons why I didn't maintain contact.

When I left for college, I was determined to reinvent myself. I wanted to leave high school behind. High school was awkward. I was awkward.

College made it really easy for me to shed my old skin and grow a new one. In college, everyone was a nerd. In fact, people were a hundred times nerdier than I was. And, all of a sudden, people thought I was funny. And, all of a sudden, people liked me. It was unlike anything I'd ever felt. It was...awesome.

Now on Facebook, I can see what became of my high school classmates -- the jocks, the cheerleaders, the orchestra kids, everyone.

Time is an equalizer, my friends.

It's funny that, with age, we become more similar. I'd always thought that differences would be magnified in adulthood. Not so. It's much easier relating to people now than it was then.

Maybe it's me. Maybe I've finally grown into myself. Maybe I've learned to be happy with who I am.

I am on both myspace and facebook, and I'm fairly sure we're friends on myspace. I never log in, though, so I can't remember. I have an account on facebook, but I've never taken the time to really use the site.

For me, junior high was the time of great awkwardness in my life. I actually had fun in high school and enjoyed it quite a bit - but I ilke adulthood better.

I'm friends with a lot of people who went to my high school. Although, I wasn't friends with them until college. Weird. I am very grateful to myspace for reuniting me with some old friends, but I don't investigate on there anymore. I guess I feel I've seen what I needed to see. And I'm still resisting facebook.

So it's no secret that I completely idolize certain people. Back in Jr. High it was this girl Sarah. I thought she was the coolest person ever because she was smart, funny, and didn't care two bits what anyone thought. She moved in 9th grade and I moved the year after so we lost touch. We just recently reconnected and its funny because both of us are exactly how the other would picture them - guess people don't change that much.

She questioned my why I never am on facebook and I admitted its because I completely don't know how to work those sites or what do when I'm on them. Sometimes, despite my age, I'm such an old lady.

Nice post. I think I wanted to reinvent myself in high school. Started smoking the ganga (lol), partying, drinking, not giving a shit. Yeah, I made some mistakes, but it was part of my evolution. So I don't regret it at all.

I still see all of the old high school crowd on FB. People really don't change.

Or maybe, it's just that we weren't as different as we once thought we were.

lol I think i'm the only loser who hasn't joined facebook. I actually do have a profile from about 4 years ago under my maiden name that I had when I was in college- but I think i'd become a wastecase stalker if I rejoined.

i actually had the worst time in elementary school, of all things. jr. high was great and HS (except for the last month) was fantastic.

still, i don't keep in contact with anyone from HS, mostly due to a bunch of drama that went down weeks before we all graduated. sad, but at the same time, i made some great friends and college that will be in my life always.

Funny you blogged about this yesterday...I finally signed myself up for Facebook and I've already reconnected with 2 old high school friends! The internet is amazing, and thank goodness time is so forgiving!

I relate to so much of what you wrote. I went off to "reinvent" myself when I moved to NYC for law school. But I had always kept in touch with my high school friends. That's part of what has made my experience so special to me. I took such a different path, and yet, as you point out, we grow more alike as time goes on. I love that I have had the same group of friends for over 20 years. We've been through so much of life's ups and downs together and watched each other grow into amazing women.

As far as Myspace, I hardly ever check my account but I love that I've reconnected with so many random people on there.